Shingles and its Symptoms
October 3, 2009
Shingles
Shingles is normally seen in people around 50 years. Shingles is a rash formed on the skin surface and is caused by varicella zoster virus. Varicella is the same virus that causes chicken pox in people. After having chicken pox the virus remains in inactive stage with in the nervous system of our body. The immune system of our body stops this virus from turning in to active. Later when we undergo certain stress, cancer, chemotherapy or immune deficiency this virus becomes reactive and cause shingles. People who never had chicken pox may get chicken pox from the shingles affected person while those who had chicken pox won’t get shingles from the affected person.
Symptoms of Shingles
Usually shingles appears on the abdomen, back, waistline and chest area but it may also appear on the legs, arm, eyes and face. In most of the cases symptoms appears on one side of the body. The patient having shingles may have a tingling sensation on the skin of the affected area. This tingling sensation is followed by rashes, pain and tenderness in the affected area. The period of illness of shingles lasts for about two weeks to four weeks.
The patient may experience pain in the area of the affected nerve. The pain may vary according to persons. Some have only a dull pain while others have a burning sensation in the area. Occasionally there will be a severe pain. Any how there may be a continuous pain. If the nerves are damaged then the patient may experience sever nerve pain called neuralgia. This neuralgia may last for long after the symptoms have subsided, even up to months and years
After the onset of pain rashes may appear in about three days. The red blotches will soon transform in to blisters that cause itching. The blisters usually follow the path of the affected nerve and form a belt like pattern. In most of the cases only one nerve will be affected at a time and rarely does it affect two nerves at the same time. In one week time these blisters turn in to yellowish and then dry out. These blisters may later cause scars on the skin.
Some people show fatigue, fever, headache, memory loss, confusion and even abdominal pain and stomach upset.
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